Boiler water consumption

Boilers are an important component for heating applications. They are common in industries such as power plants, chemical processing, food and beverage processing industry, heating engineering, building materials. Water is the most common fluid used in heating processes, due to its availability and high heat capacity. These uses require large amounts of water and often present potential for water saving. This savings result in lower water and sewer bills and decreased treatment costs.

Figure 1 - scheme of a boiler

The water consumption consists on the control of the make-up water, the blowdown water and the condensed water quantities. These three waters determine the cycles of concentration that can be reached in the cooling tower. The mass balance of a cooling tower system can be written as the following:

Make-up = Blowdown + Evaporation loss

This equation doesn’t take account of the process leaks, the windage and drift which are just forms of uncontrolled blowdown. Moreover, the water consumption is usually determined with the blow-down brine, depending on the recirculated steam and the make-up water concentration.

B=S x (1 - r) x m / b - m

B = Blowdown

S = Steam rate

b = boiler water TDS concentration

m = make-up water TDS concentration

r = fractional condensate return

This ratio can be optimized by controlling the boiler make-up water (click in new page) quality and the reused boiler blowdown (click in new page) quality.

Boiler water quality shall be set according to the boiler pressure and type of heater.

Lenntech can provide you all water treatment equipment, including chemicals. Chemicals will condition the water and protect boiler equipment (heater, pump, …).

Lenntech can advise you on treatments required on the make-up water, by providing calculations on mass balance in the steam boiler, contributing for lower

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